Talk:Manayunk/Norristown Line

Comments

"It became a "competition" line in the 1930's when the Reading started operating Philadelphia-New York service in competition to that of the Pennsylvania Railroad."

I don't understand this. What did New York service have to do with the Norristown Line? Didn't the New York trains use the West Trenton Line? Digamma 18:24, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

We should talk to people like they're not railfans and explain why "Reading-bound commuters would transfer" at Norristown if they took electric service to get there.... I know that the line isn't completely electrified but some clarification is needed. User:NeverSwornToNeverBroken 23:48, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

Mogees station closing date

Mogees station was still open (albeit with very limited service) in the late 1980s. I can try to find paper timetable reference but it will be quite difficult. MKoltnow 20:45, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

The only other reference I can find is on a discussion board [1]. The contributor is Matthew Mitchell, onetime president of DVARP (Del Val Association of Rail Passengers), and although he does not give a date, he asserts that the closure was post-1983. When I started riding the RRD in 1985, Mogees was still a stop with two trains a day each way; Ivy Rock was already closed. I suspect Mogees was closed in the time just before RailWorks. With this, I'll commit the change in the chart in the article. MKoltnow 21:58, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Finally found via google a link the actual DVRP (monthly newsletter of DVARP) where they listed the announcement of the impending closing of Mogees station as part of a SEPTA service cut, so I'm committing a change to "circa 1993". MKoltnow 14:00, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Confused

The article's first section, headed "Route," contains the following:

Prior to 1981, it served as the electrified commuter segment of the Reading Company's main line to Reading, Pennsylvania. Service from Philadelphia to Reading and Pottsville on this line was handled by RDC diesel trains in addition to electrified service to Norristown. Since July 27, 1981, however, all service on this line has been truncated to the electrified segment. Electrified service to Norristown (and Chestnut Hill East) was opened on February 5, 1933.

This suggests that the Reading Company's main line, to Reading, went up the east side of the Schuylkill (which is where this Manayunk/Norristown line is, according to the SEPTA Regional Rail map at http://septa.org/maps/system/index.html). On the other hand, Wikipedia's article about the Reading Viaduct seems to indicate (in the second paragraph of its section headed "History") that the Reading Company's main line came "southeast along the west bank of the Schuylkill from Reading[ and] used the Columbia Bridge to approach Philadelphia."

I'm confused. Is one of these articles incorrect — or incomplete — or am I just misunderstanding something?108.36.209.26 (talk) 04:38, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Maybe I've found my own answer — or part of it — by looking at the 1873 map at Wikipedia's Reading Company article. It looks as if the main line began its descent from Reading on the Schuylkill's east side but crossed to the west at Phoenixville. It stayed on the west side until it got to about the latitude of East Falls, I guess, where it forked. The fork's upper branch crossed the Schuylkill right there, at East Falls, and went up and down in a big arc, across North Philadelphia, to the coal wharves at Port Richmond. The lower branch went down to the Columbia Bridge, which it crossed, and then headed over toward the area (more or less) where the 12th and Market terminal would eventually be placed.

What is now the Manayunk/Norristown line seems to have begun as two small railroads, whose names, apparently, were the Philadelphia Germantown and Norristown Railroad and the Norristown Bridgeport Railroad (abbreviated Norristown Br. R.R. on the map). This went up the Schuylkill's east side to Norristown. Just before it reached Norristown, it crossed to Bridgeport, on the Schuylkill's west side, and blended into the Reading's main line.

This does make me wonder whether this article about the Manayunk/Norristown Line is correct to speak of the Manayunk/Norristown line as part of the Reading's "main line." In connection with this question, I'll present a part of the second paragraph of the lead of Wikipedia's Reading Viaduct article:

The viaduct heads north from Reading Terminal and forks, with a spur heading northwest to the old mainline to Reading, Pennsylvania, and the main viaduct continuing north, merging with the current SEPTA line.

In that paragraph, the term "main line" seems to mean the line that, in leaving Reading Terminal, turned toward the Columbia Bridge and crossed it, to go up to Reading. The part of the viaduct that continued northward as part of what is now the SEPTA commuter line is not being referred to as the "main line." That "SEPTA" portion, unless I'm completely misunderstanding this, includes the Manayunk/Norristown Line.

So — is the current article correct in indicating that the Manayunk/Norristown Line was part of the Reading's "main line"? I am completely new to this subject.108.36.209.26 (talk) 06:06, 24 March 2012 (UTC)

Better late than never. As written at the time, this was wrong. The Reading main line went down the west bank of the Schuylkill. The Norristown Branch, which this service uses, went down the east bank. The main line never used the Reading Viaduct. By the 1960s, passenger trains that went beyond Norristown used the Norristown branch between Philadelphia and Norristown, and then crossed the Schuylkill and continued north on the main line. Mackensen (talk) 04:00, 5 June 2022 (UTC)

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